THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The plight of students from Kerala, who were forced to study in foreign countries like Ukraine, could have been avoided had the CPM made timely changes to its retrograde policies in higher education sector, state Congress president K Sudhakaran has said.
Sudhakaran said the CPM’s decision to change its higher education policy was belated and blamed the party for the exodus of lakhs of students to foreign countries. He accused the CPM of scuttling all progressive reforms introduced by successive UDF governments in the higher education sector.
The Congress leader reminded the CPM of its opposition to UDF’s reforms such as de-linking of pre-degree course from colleges, permitting self-financing educational institutions, granting autonomy to colleges and allowing private universities in state.
The Koothuparambu firing was a result of CPM’s agitation against self-financing colleges, he pointed out. Former vice-chairperson of the state higher education council, T P Sreenivasan, was attacked by activists of CPM’s student wing SFI at a global education meet in Kovalam to suggest reforms in the sector, he reminded.